Should men of God do overtime during service?

Sunday is the day, which the faithful are supposed to dedicate mainly to their Creator, to worship and show gratitude to Him. It is a time, when faithful are to free themselves from earthly activities and concentrate mainly on spiritual matters. Unfortunately, however, this is also the only day, when many have the opportunity to take a break from hectic work schedules, rest and refresh for the week ahead. However, it is not uncommon to see some churches, still in the habit of extending service hours endlessly, thereby preventing their members from getting home early to rest. So, how can a balance be achieved, so that believers can conveniently accommodate Sunday service without feeling overburdened? How should church leaders manage time, so as not to make believers feel they are wasting their precious time? CHRIS IREKAMBA reports.

The issue of time management cannot be dragged into the Church by people with secular reasoning. Sunday does not belong to anyone of us, as it belongs to God. It is called the Lord’s day. “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard behind me, a loud voice as of a trumpet” Rev. 1:10. You see, the danger we face in the present day Christianity is in trying to use worldly things to regulate the spiritual. You mentioned that ministers should control time. How do you think that can possibly happen? God owns the time and He is in perfect control of it. How can people who work eight to 10 hours a day think that three hours of a day that does not belong to them is too much.

I believe Sunday service should be undertaken with the leading of the spirit. Today, many believers are so shallow because of the haste with which they want to hear the word of God. In the days of great revivals in this country, Reverend B. A. Idahosa would preach and close church about 2pm. And we would be back for Sunday evening service by 6pm. In those days, people feared God. Christians were saved and sound in faith and evil was less in the society. My counsel is that we should bother with important things and not be condemning pastors for staying too long in Church.

(The Rt. Rev. Dr. Isaac Ayo Olawuyi, Bishop Diocese Of Lagos Mainland, Methodist Church Nigeria)
THE issue here is about effective time management in church services. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: “To everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” In everything we do, time is of great essence and consequence. In a day, 24 hours are given for every activity. You cannot add to or deduct from it. And within these 24 hours there are so many things to be accomplished.

Before coming to church on Sunday, some worshippers must have taken into consideration the time allotted for service. Some of them have plans for other things after the church service. It will definitely disrupt the plan, the moment the time is changed or the service is delayed or prolonged. Such worshipper may become unhappy or get upset and may go home unfulfilled.

Pastor or leader of worship must be conscious of time, when leading worship. Each item of the service must be timed. Leaders of worship ought to have rehearsed and checked how long each item will take.

Timing is of great importance in church service. Take for instance, singing, prayers, Bible reading and sermon. All these should be timed and not just to be left to the Holy Spirit’s control. Yes, the Holy Spirit is in charge of the church service, but the Holy Spirit Himself is a person. He created time and understands the use of it. We are not saying that the pastor should allow time to control him, but he must learn to manage and control time.

Many pastors and leaders of worship often fall victims of time management. This happens, when a leader feels he is in charge, and the people as far as they are under the unction of the Holy Spirit, cannot do otherwise. Of course, worshippers cannot protest, just like passengers in an airplane, but they can stop attending such a church.

Church leaders must be conscious and considerate of the people’s time and programmes. They may have other things to attend to after service. Some may have church meetings, family meetings, or programmes outside the church. In some cases, a church may run two, three or more services on a Sunday and for each service, a time should be allotted. If a service is protracted and eats deep into another service, it will adversely affect other programmes for the day. Therefore, time must be well managed in our church services. Abuse of time is not only a form of oppression, but it is also a sin.
‘Ministers Must Be Disciplined Enough To Be Time Conscious’

(Dr. Patrick Oyinkari, Chairman, Association of Sabbath Keepers and Overseer, Seventh Day Church of God)
TIME is one resource that is constantly fleeting, irrespective of what anyone does. It has been designed not to wait for anyone. To everyone, a second misused is a time lost and can never be recovered. There may very well be another time for the activity, but never that one that has been wasted.

Everyone, it seems, has become quite time conscious because of so many challenges that demand attention within the constraints of time. Several appointments may be fixed for the same day and so; people would have to complete them on schedule in order to achieve results. For this and other reasons, many people tend to be impatient and intolerant of others, who appear not to be prompt, or seem to cause them to miss their next appointment. The ordained time frame of 24 hours each day does not seem to be sufficient any longer to satisfy people’s numerous arrangements, especially for those that live and do business in the cities. Sometimes, they may lose time by being caught up in traffic situations they never adequately planned for. To still gain time, we hear of multi-tasking, so that people now do more than one thing at the same time.

In all of this, however, we tend these days to lose sight of the fact that scriptures provide for man to do all his work and exert himself profitably for six full days, out of the seven allotted for each week. If man should recognise this and set apart the seventh day of the week for the worship of the Creator of time and for rest, he will be under less pressure to catch up with other appointments, when he comes to church. The worshipper will then be relaxed to absorb the spiritual import of attending church, unlike when he attends his secular meetings and schedules. So, the first point to consider in church attendance and ministration is the spiritual benefits, which both the members and ministers should take very seriously.

Having said that, the human body and mind have capacities, which must not be abused, and limitations, which must not be ignored. There are settings, where congregants stay in the church from the beginning of the Sabbath (Friday evening) to the end of it (Saturday evening). Obviously, they will not be actively in church mode all that time. There will be other activities, which would include sleep. Even in such organisations, human abilities and boundaries should be respected and observed. During worship times, some rules and regulations should guide the conduct of proceedings in order to retain and sustain worshippers’ interest. One of these is the effective management of time.

The chief instrument by which time is managed is planning. This means that ahead of schedule, there should be a drawn order of proceedings, which should be strictly followed. Knowing what comes next after an activity helps to sustain interest and moderate anxiety. Not to be sure of the flow of events will elicit confusion and unnecessary elongation of the service. There could, however, be occasions, when extension of service time will be inevitable.

When it is not a frequent occurrence, in such a way that service time is relatively predictable, all should be fine. Thus, within human constraints, time allotted by any group for worship should be adequately planned for and reasonably adhered to.

Planning a church service calls for ministers to recognise the humanity in their members. If they have had to be at work the previous six days, they will need, apart from attending church, to also have some rest and be refreshed for the next six days. Their attention span must be given due consideration in the planning. Each activity should be assigned time that is appropriate for it, without unduly diminishing the import of others. Those to handle each segment should have a pre-gathering meeting or session, where they agree and get committed to the duration allotted for their ministration.

Overcrowding a service with many activities and or officials will tend to extend it, unless one is not mindful of the spiritual gains but the formalities of the service. Not all activities should be fixed on the Sabbath day. Other days could be engaged to satisfy the yearnings for such activities.Ministers should not get carried away by the excitement of particular sessions of the service, such as the singing and dancing time. Coordinators must have to be disciplined enough to be time conscious.